Category: Pakistan

Pakistan

Shahzad Nawaz Secures Prestigious Position

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Shahzad Nawaz Secures Prestigious Position of Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Culture, Arts and Related Communications

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)  Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan in terms of rule 4(6) of the Rules of Business 1973 awarded the position of Special Assistant on Culture, Arts and Related Communications to Mr. Shahzad Nawaz. With an illustrious career spanning over two decades, Mr. Nawaz and his interdisciplinary expertise has enabled the amalgamation and fusion of technology, arts, design, and execution for various private sector entities across the country. He has received one of the highest number of international ‘creative excellence’ awards and citations conferred to a Pakistani making him an ideal candidate for the role.

Pakistan’s media and entertainment landscape has been diversifying rapidly. Shahzad Nawaz is amongst the most highly accredited and acclaimed specialized Media consultants in the country. He was responsible for launching Pakistan’s first private TV channel and has served in senior executive roles with various publications and media houses subsequently. He has also remained an advisor to various public sector institutions and served as DVF for one of the most premier educational institutes in the country. Mr. Nawaz was also responsible for developing an extensive toolkit and information management system for use by the industry while also creating identity, brand look, music, programming, sets and communication as well as launching various private and public TV channels. Mr. Shahzad Nawaz was also the pioneering force behind Ad Asia 2019 which was held in Pakistan after hiatus of 30 years and is Asia’s biggest Advertising Congress.

Mr. Nawaz has degrees in commerce, design and advertising from the University of Karachi and Memphis College of Arts.

 

*Skilled youth vital for prosperity, socio-economic development: Provincial Minister Aslam Iqbal*

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Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Highlighting the importance of producing skilled youth towards socio-economic development, Punjab Minister for Industries, Commerce and Investment Mian Muhammad Aslam Iqbal has said that experts in skills training can contribute a lot in not only saving the planet but also offering skilled manpower to both public as well as private sectors.
The provincial government’s efforts are to have best vocational and technical training system that conforms the international standards. Today while seeing all these graduates having choice of the employment search as per the same demand-driven aspects of industry is the real showcasing of what we had aimed for, the minister remarked this while addressing the fresh graduates at the Hunar Rozgar Mela 2021 in Lahore.
The Hunar Rozgar Mela was organized by Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) Punjab, the donor funded TVET Sector Support Programme (SSP) implemented by National Vocational and Technical Training Commission, Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and Programme Migration for Development (PME). Purpose of the Mela was aimed at providing a platform to the job seeking TVET graduates, undergraduate and returnees from EU and GCC countries.
These institutes have received assistance from the TVET SSP. Aside from the 62.5 million Euro work in the TVET sector, the TVET SSP has recently launched a 5 million Euro reintegration of returnees in Pakistan initiative to support returning migrants and local populations in their socioeconomic reintegration through skills, career counselling, and business start-ups measures.
Punjab Minister for Industries, Commerce and Investment Mian Muhammad Aslam Iqbal, MNA Andleeb Abbas and Chief Advisor TEVTA, Skills Policy Punjab, Usman Khan, were also present on the occasion. 
Through this event, the TEVTA Punjab successfully showcased the skills of training institutes in the province that are implementing competency-based training in industry priority economic sectors. 
As many as 1,100 graduates of TVET SSP from 21 different institutes visited recruitment kiosks of 30 national and multinational enterprises for exploring employment opportunity against 1,400 jobs while testing their interview skills in front of more than 60 recruiters in various leading economic sectors of Pakistan.
Speaking at the occasion, Chairperson TEVTA Ali Salman Siddique said, the Hunar Rozgar Mela 2021 is a great initiative and served as a platform to connect hundreds of young jobseekers trained in vocational and technical trades with recruiters and HR professionals from leading enterprises.
In his remarks, Olaf Handloegten, GIZ Cluster Coordinator (Training and Sustainable Growth for Decent Jobs) said that the event showcases the potential of public-private partnership in the TVET sector of Pakistan, with both a wide-range visibility of the Government of Pakistan’s commitment towards employment promotion and skills delivery, as well as of Business and Industry Associations working in the TVET sector.
MNA Andleeb Abbas also said the participation of private sector in the TVET SSP is critical for gaining access to quality skills development, on-the-job training opportunities, and establishing a conducive climate for employment.
Chief Advisor TEVTA, Skills Policy Punjab, Usman Khan, speaking at the occasion said that they are encouraged to see the results of TVET SSP and efforts of TEVTA Punjab especially in the area of industry-linkages. We aspire and anticipate stronger cooperation and collaboration between TEVTA and the commercial sector in improving training quality and employment possibilities for our alumni.
Panel discussion on the topic ‘Employment for Economic Sustainability and the Role of the Private Sector in TVET in post-COVID Scenario’ was also conducted. All the panelists put forward their expert opinions on the training and human resource development aspects.
The Hunar Rozgar Mela 2021 was concluded with the insights from the leading representatives of industry involved in TVET delivery like Member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC), Professor of Economics and Director, Graduate Institute of Development Studies, Lahore School of Economics, Dr Rashid Amjad, CEO Depilex Group, Musarrat Misbah, Nouman Kabir, President Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Ali Salman Siddique, Chairperson TEVTA and Rep of Overseas Pakistanis Foundation.

PTV takes Nauman Niaz, Shoaib Akhtar off-air till inquiry concludes.

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Following an on-air spat between former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar and PTV Sports anchorperson Nauman Niaz, the state broadcaster has decided to take both personalities off-air.

According to a statement issued by the PTV, “neither Akhtar nor Dr Nauman will not be allowed to appear in any programme on PTV,” until the completion of the inquiry into the matter. 

Sources had earlier told that the decision was taken upon the recommendation of an inquiry committee formed by the PTV to investigate the episode.

The recommendation was presented during a meeting of the inquiry committee in which the managing director of the state broadcaster, along with other higher-ups, was present.

During the meeting, the unpleasant episode that occurred between legendary bowler Shoaib Akhtar and Niaz was thoroughly discussed and a report prepared in this regard was also reviewed, sources said.

The inquiry committee said that it had interviewed Niaz regarding the spat after which it forwarded the recommendation of taking Niaz off-air. Meanwhile, the inquiry committee had also summoned Shoaib Akhtar to appear before it, but Akhtar refused, saying that the committee should review the videos instead of asking him to appear it. 

It should be recalled that on Tuesday, Akhtar and Niaz were embroiled in a spat during the PTV Sports show “Game on Hai”. 

The two were discussing Pakistan’s victory over New Zealand when tensions between Niaz, the host of the show, and Shoaib Akhtar, one of the many decorated panellists on the show, escalated.

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PAK President, PM and the Army Chief congratulated the Pakistan cricket team

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Political leaders, including President Arif Ali, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, have congratulated the national team on historic win and defeating India.

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa Sunday congratulated the Pakistan cricket team over their convincing victory by 10 wickets against India in the Twenty20 World Cup match, ARY NEWS reported quoting Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR).

According to the ISPR, COAS General Qamar Bajwa congratulated Pakistan cricket team for outstanding performance and comprehensive win against India in ICC T20 World Cup match.

“Pakistan Cricket Team has made us all proud” the army chief was quoted as saying by the military’s media wing.

Prime Minister Imran Khan also witnessed a stunning victory of Pakistan against India in the Twenty20 World Cup during his visit to Saudi Arabia along with members of the federal cabinet.

The prime minister congratulated the Pakistan team and especially to Babar Azam who led from the front, as well as to the brilliant performances of Rizwan and Shaheen Afridi.

“The nation is proud of you all,” he said in a message from his Twitter handle.

The scenes of the prime minister witnessing the victory of the national cricket team were shared by Hammad Azhar from his Twitter handle.

 

PM Imran Khan seeks to shield innocent minds from online pornographic content.

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Prime Minister Imran Khan directed authorities to ensure effective gate-keeping of online content to shield innocent minds against the “ruthless onslaught” of immoral and pornographic content online. The prime minister’s directives came as he chaired a meeting on blocking pornographic websites in the country, a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.

“Character building is very crucial in the modern tech-savvy era. The proliferation of tech gadgets and 3G/4G internet technology has made all sort of content available to everyone,” the prime minister said.

“We need to protect our youth, especially kids, from being exposed to immoral and unethical content available online,” he added.

The prime minister was told that Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), particularly Cloudfare, having 1-2% of total internet traffic share, have complaints against them of serving pornographic content, the statement said. According to the statement, “other CDNs don’t serve pornographic material as per their policies”.

The prime minister was also informed that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) needs to work with internet service providers (ISPs)/CDNs for blocking pornographic content through CDNs, particularly Cloudfare, the statement added.
He was informed that PTA also needs to “enhance its Warehouse Management System (WMS) capability by integrating with some global and regularly updated databases of pornographic sites to block them at URL and domain level”.

Moreover, he was briefed that PTA is working on the feasibility of this project whose implementation time is about 2 months, the statement added.  Two days back, during the Rehmatul-lil-Alameen conference in Islamabad on the occasion of Eid Milad un Nabi, the premier had expressed his concern about the youth of the country and said that bringing them towards the path of righteousness is a challenge.

The prime minister said that parents are unable to take away mobile phones from children by force and cannot block their social media.
“Although there is no compulsion in religion, we can show them the right way. We can, at least, train our children and talk to them about the bad effects of [Western] culture,” he said.

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Pakistan ranks 2nd for number of videos removed by TikTok

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Pakistan ranks second when it comes to the number of videos removed by TikTok from its platform in the second quarter of 2021 for violation of community guidelines.

According to a statement by TikTok, the latest Community Guidelines Report states that more than 81 million videos were removed from the short-form video platform in this period.

“With 9,851,404 videos removed, Pakistan ranked second in the world for largest volume of videos taken down for community guidelines violations in Q2 2021,” the statement said.

Key stats from the report

According to TikTok, to protect the safety of the community and the integrity of the platform, 81,518,334 videos were removed globally from April to June, comprising less than 1% of all uploaded content.

Of these, 93% were removed within 24 hours of posting and 94.1% before being reported by a user. Even more promising, was the finding that 87.5% of removed content had zero views.

Looking more closely at the findings, 73.3% of content promoting harassment and bullying videos and 72.9% focused on hateful behaviour were removed prior to being reported, a significant increase from the 66.2% and 67% respectively, from the first quarter of this year.

How TikTok monitors, manages negative content

“The improvement stems from the pioneering combination of technology and content moderation by a dedicated investigations team used to identify videos that violate policies,” said TikTok.

“To better enforce these policies, moderators also receive regular training to identify content featuring reappropriation, slurs and bullying,” it added.

Empowering users

The platform also announced improved mute settings for comments and questions during live streams, whereby hosts can temporarily mute select viewers for anywhere between a few seconds to the entire duration of the live session.

Once muted, the user’s entire comment history will also be removed, in addition to the existing option to turn off comments or limit potentially harmful comments using a keyword filter.

Further to the removal of negative content, TikTok empowers users to customise their experience with a range of tools and resources, including effective ways to filter comments on their content, delete or report multiple comments at once, and block accounts in bulk, the statement said.

More recently, prompts have been introduced to urge users to consider the impact of their words before posting unkind or violative comments. This has already proven effective with nearly four in 10 people withdrawing or editing their comments, according to TikTok.

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Court indicts Zahir Jaffer in Noor Mukadam’s murder case

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

The prime suspect in the murder of Noor Mukadam, Zahir Jaffer, has been formally charged for the crime by the Islamabad High Court on Thursday.

Besides Jaffer, two of the family’s employees — Jamil and Jan Mohammad — were also indicted, along with the Chief Executive Officer of Therapy Works, Tahir Zahoor.

Additional sessions judge Atta Rabbani indicted a total of six individuals in the case and all the accused were brought to the court from Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.

Meanwhile, the court has summoned the prosecution witnesses on October 20 and directed that the trial must be commenced immediately and be completed within two months.  

During the hearing, the lawyer of Zahir’s parents, Advocate Rizwan Abbasi, said that the evidence produced in the court had nothing to do with Zakir Jaffer, therefore, he could not be indicted in the murder case.

In response, Shaukat Mukadam’s lawyer said the evidence can be reviewed during the trial. 

“The accused is being charged, but have not been sentenced yet, Shaukat Mukadam’s lawyer said.

During the court’s proceedings, Zahir continued to interject remarks and said that the employees of Therapy Works had entered his house when the murder took place.

Zahir also apologised to Shaukat Mukadam in the courtroom and begged him for forgiveness. 

“My life is in danger, please have mercy on me,” Zahir said to Shaukat Mukadam. 

The murder

Noor Mukadam, a 27-year-old woman, was raped and murdered with a sharp instrument on July 20 within the limits of the ​Kohsar police station in Islamabad. A case of murder was later registered at the same police station by Noor’s father, former Pakistani ambassador Shaukat Ali Mukadam.

Zahir is the prime suspect in Noor Mukadam’s murder case. The grisly murder, in which Mukadam was beheaded, took place on July 20 in Islamabad’s F-7 area.

The Islamabad police had arrested suspect Zahir on the night of July 20 from his house where, according to Noor’s parents, he killed her with a sharp instrument and severed her head.

The gruesome incident sparked a nationwide campaign seeking justice for her, with #JusticeforNoor becoming a top trend on Twitter.

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Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari blessed with a baby boy

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)


Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari, the daughter of Asif Zardari and late Benazir Bhutto, has been blessed with a baby boy.

Taking to Twitter, Bakhtawar announced that the baby was born on October 10.

Reacting to the news, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and the brother of Bakhtawar also expressed his joy of becoming an uncle (mamoo).

Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari also tweeted about the news and expressed her gratefulness.

“Officially a khala!!! Alhamdullilah!” she wrote.

 Bakhtawar was married to businessman Mahmood Choudhry on January 29, 2021.

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‘Forever indebted’: Celebrities pay tribute to ‘father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme’

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan breathed his last in Islamabad Sunday morning at the age of 85. He was given a state funeral at Faisal Mosque and later buried at the capital’s Sector H-8 graveyard.

Condoling his death, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced a state funeral for the national icon.

“In pursuance of announcement by Prime Minister of Pakistan, State Funeral shall be accorded to Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan. The national flag of Pakistan shall fly at half-mast on Sunday, 10th October, 2021”, read a notification issued by the Ministry of Interior.

Taking to Twitter, PM Khan said, “Deeply saddened by the passing of Dr A Q Khan. He was loved by our nation bec of his critical contribution in making us a nuclear weapon state. This has provided us security against an aggressive much larger nuclear neighbour. For the people of Pakistan he was a national icon.”

Shortly after the news of the nuclear scientist’s death broke, celebrities through their social media accounts expressed sadness and grief over the passing of “father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme”.

“Saddened to hear about the loss of Dr #AbdulQadeerKhan. He was a patriot and the nation will always be indebted to him for his services to our country,” tweeted renowned actor and singer Ali Zafar.

Actor Imran Abbas said, “The father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme Sir Abdul Qadeer Khan is no more. Inna Lillahe wa Inna Elehe Rajeoon. Standing ovation to our hero for giving us strength and power with the grace of Almighty and his endless contributions.”

Actor Adnan Siddiqui in a condolence message posted on his Twitter handle said: “We are a nuke-power today only because of AQ Khan. Forever indebted. Khuda Hafiz, Mohsin-e-Pakistan. May Allah grant you higher place in Jannah tul Firdous. Aameen.”

“His contributions made us stand proud and strong. We are forever indebted to you #DrAbdulQadeerKhan,” wrote actor Ahsan Khan.

Actress Saba Qamar tweeted: “Sorry to hear about the passing of #DrAbdulQadeerKhan. Thank you for your services Sir! My thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones.”

 

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Female TikToker’s harassment: Police arrest Rambo, seven others in Lahore raids

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Lahore police arrested an associate of the female Tiktoker and victim in Minar-e-Pakistan harassment incident, Rambo, and seven others after a blackmailing complaint was filed with the police

According to Punjab’s investigation police, seven people including Amir Sohail aka Rambo have been arrested during separate raids in Lahore. The police also conducted a raid to arrest an accomplice of Rambo, Badshah, in Rawalpindi, however, he fled before the raid.

Earlier in the day, a female TikToker who was allegedly manhandled and harassed at Minar-e-Pakistan on Independence Day has blamed her associate, Rambo, for the entire episode at the Greater Iqbal Park in Lahore.

In a written statement submitted to DIG Investigations, Ayesha Akram said that it was Rambo, her associate, who made the plan to visit Greater Iqbal Park on Independence Day, which later led to the horrific incident.

“Rambo used to blackmail me using some of my obscene videos he possessed,” she said adding that he had so far received Rs1 million from her through blackmailing tactics besides also regularly receiving half of her salary.

The female Tiktoker further alleged that Rambo used to run a TikTok gang along with his associate named Badshah.

On August 14, the woman TikToker was assaulted and harassed at Minar-e-Pakistan by a mob of nearly 400 men. The incident came to light weeks later after videos of the horrific episode went viral on social media, forcing the authorities to launch a crackdown against all those involved in it.

Police arrested multiple people while using CCTV footage and other technology and during an identification parade, the female TikToker had identified at least six suspects during the process.